City vloggers make their presence felt

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 28

If you are familiar with names like PewDiePie and Zoella, chances are that you belong to the humongous YouTube vlogging family that has become a free-for-all video platform for anyone, who has an opinion. The global vlogging phenomenon has reached the Indian household, thanks to our addiction to smart phones. Having a YouTube channel, irrespective of the content, seems to be the next big thing among the loyal digital audience. And the city too has quite a few vloggers, who are reaching out to the audience like never before.

Manraj Sandhu, a videographer, who began as a YouTuber, has managed to get 18,000 subscribers in three years. His content, mostly self-made videos, are a comic take on any particular social issue. “When I started, not many people were aware about vlogging. But today, YouTube runs several thousand channels with a variety of content. I used to upload self-made comic videos, short films that I made and behind the scenes content of music videos that I direct.”

Sandhu says that the response has been good, “It’s a great way of reaching out to people with your ideas and opinions. Not every channel can get million followers but a decent number gives you some edge, if you are creatively inclined.”

Mona Sekri, another young fashion vlogger, too, agrees that the trend is here to grow. “Everyone is aware of the reach digital media has now and it works as big influencer among youth. For most young vloggers, YouTube has come as an engaging medium with more relatability. We get instant feedbacks and it costs nothing.” With almost 5,000 subscribers in over a year, her focus is now to rope in some experts from the city as contributors.

The mushrooming YouTube channels can bring in some cons as well. “The trend of having too many channels is that genuinely engaging content gets compromised. Not every channel has good content and the genuine good stuff might not get that many hits as well,” says Mantaj. He stresses that the lack consistent censorship and free-for-all nature of online platform might encourage abusive content as well. Also, the trolls and abusive comments also make it tough for vloggers to maintain a consistent upload of their stuff. “Sometimes, it becomes very irritating to handle trolls and haters, who would only subscribe to criticise,” says Mona.